Keynote Speakers

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS


Wednesday, October 9


Diane MacPhee

Ten Tips to A Better Practice

Diane MacPhee | DMAC Consulting Services

Come learn a fast-track plan to execute the ten tips that Diane believes are significant and causative for success in building a better business. 

Diane MacPhee is a CFP® and a Professional Certified Coach. She is well versed in the challenges that financial advisors face and she coaches her clients through a variety of issues. Diane owned and operated a fee only financial practice for 16 years. She has been in the trenches and knows firsthand the struggles and joys of being a successful business owner.

Through a consulting process, Diane partners with her clients to develop strategy, helps move them forward, holds them accountable and celebrates with them as they achieve the results they desire. Continuity planning and Succession planning have been pressing issues for so many advisors. Diane has helped several owners prior to a sale or a merger. She has coached them to design a back up plan and in some cases identify a potential successor for the firm.

Diane coaches advisors on what to say to clients in a number of challenging situations. She has delved deeply into the areas of marketing, client acquisition, client segmentation, managing systems more effectively, earning more revenue, improving profitability and applying best practice theory.

Ultimately a common goal of coaching is the transformation of your life toward what you really want to be doing. If a business owner can get their business life in order, the door opens for so many possibilities elsewhere. 


Dan Felix

Using a Trustee is NOT an Afterthought

Dan Felix | The Professional Trustee


Your clients’ trustee needs to collaborate with you through any disability and then to transition after their death. Planning enhances the trustee’s effectiveness, and minimizes waste, delay and heartache. In this program, we’ll outline trust essentials and then identify the paths for your advance collaborations. You’ll leave with concrete action steps supported by handouts and other resources.

Daniel P. Felix is a licensed Illinois attorney using his legal expertise & people management skills to help families by serving as an impartial trustee.

Designated a Master Trustee by the Independent Trustee Alliance, Dan speaks frequently on the subjects of trust structure, trust vision, trust administration, and trusts in crisis, teaching attorneys as well as lay audiences. His articles on these trust topics have appeared in various state, national and international journals, and include a series on Keys to Successful Trust Administration. Copies of some of his articles appear on his LinkedIn profile.

Dan also brings his versatility, vision, and collective legal expertise to his non-for-profit education and advocacy organization. He is the founder & President of The Chicago Trustee Collaboratory: a unique open peer-to-peer association devoted to helping families flourish through better trust practices.

 


Thursday, October 10


Meghaan Lurtz

Upping Your Question Game: 25 Questions for Better Client Connections Throughout the Financial Planning Engagement

Dr. Meghaan Lurtz | Kitces

Asking great questions is an essential part of the job of the financial advisor. Great questions help us to gather important information, and great questions can help motivate clients to take action. Many advisors are aware of the difference between a closed-ended question and an open-ended question, but questions can take additional forms as well. Join us this month and learn not only about the different types of questions that are available to advisors, but also about how and when to use these questions throughout the financial planning relationship. 

Meghaan Lurtz, Ph.D., FBS™ is a Professor of Practice at Kansas State University where she teaches courses for the Advanced Financial Planning Certificate Program, lecturer at Columbia University where she teaches Financial Psychology, and an on-staff writer and researcher of financial psychology at Kitces.com. Her research interests vary as she studies both practitioners of financial planning as well as financial planning and financial therapy practices and interventions. Her research and expertise have been featured in Journal of Financial Planning, Journal of Consumer Affairs, Financial Planning Review, Wall Street Journal, BBC, Million Dollar Roundtable, and New York Magazine. She has also contributed chapters to the CFP Board’s textbook, Client Psychology. Meghaan is a past President and current board member for the Financial Therapy Association and Financial Psychology Institute Europe.


Reggie Chever

Update from the Federal Reserve

Reginald "Reggie" Chever II | Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta

Reginald "Reggie" Chever II is vice president and regional executive of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. As part of the Regional Economic Information Network, or REIN, Chever is responsible for gathering economic intelligence in the local business and academic community to support the Atlanta Fed's contributions to the monetary policy process. He also leads the Community Depository Institutions Advisory Council and the Organized Labor Advisory Council and provides support for public outreach, economic education, and corporate citizenship.

From 2018 to 2022, Chever served as assistant vice president in the Retail Payments Office of Federal Reserve Financial Services with responsibility for the national and cross-border automated clearing house (ACH) and check payments processing operations as well as customer support functions. He oversaw the Federal Reserve's 2021 implementation of a new same-day ACH distribution and settlement window. Chever co-led strategic design efforts for FRFS Enterprise Customer Support, helping to create the department's organizational structure, operating model, and requirements for other resources.

Chever's Atlanta Fed career began in 1998 in the Cash Department at the Jacksonville Branch. He later served in roles of increasing responsibility in Jacksonville's Human Resources and Corporate Communications and Planning Departments before transferring to the Atlanta office in 2004. He has since held various leadership positions in Law Enforcement, Business Continuity, and Records and Information Management. In 2016, Chever was appointed to assistant vice president with responsibility for the District's Business Continuity Office and Records and Information Management. While in this role, he revamped the District's Business Continuity Office to focus on enterprise resilience planning and adaptive preparedness and response strategies. He also served in leadership roles at both System and District levels.

A native of Jacksonville, Florida, Chever earned an MBA from Georgia State University's Robinson School of Business and a bachelor's degree in business administration from the American Intercontinental University. Chever is actively engaged in his community and serves on the boards of the Atlanta Police Foundation and Sheltering Arms.


 


Friday, October 11


Brooklyn Brock


The Hit-By-A-Bus Workflow

Brooklyn H. Brock, CFP®, CEPA®, ChFC®, CKA® | Ellevate Advisors

What would happen to your business if you were hit by the proverbial bus? It’s hard to think about, but every year, an advisor you know is going to die unexpectedly, without a succession plan or a financial plan for their family.

Join Brooklyn Brock, 3rd generation CFP and Exit Coach, to learn how to create a Hit-by-a-Bus Workflow with prioritized action steps for that exact scenario. We’ll cover everything from notifying clients, to potentially repapering and staying compliant along the way. It may seem overwhelming, but we’re here to share resources and help you create a plan to secure the future of your family and your advisory firm. This session is ideal for every advisory firm owner, at any stage of growth.

Three (3) Learning Objectives:

  1. Client Communication - Best practices to increase the client retention rate
  2. Operations - Coordinate with key people to transition the business smoothly
  3. Compliance - Pro tips to navigating compliance under pressure


Brooklyn Brock is a 3rd generation financial advisor and founder of Ellevate Advisors LLC, a fee-only RIA, specializing in Financial Planning and Exit Planning for advisors themselves. Throughout her career, she found advisors rarely do retirement planning for themselves like they do for their clients, which drove her to launch her own RIA to serve advisors exclusively. Ellevate Advisors was named the Best Financial Planning and Exit Coaching Firm for Advisors in the 2024 World Finance Awards. Brooklyn travels across the nation as a speaker, sharing her passion for helping advisors themselves.